Hapuna
by Amboseus
Summary: When Steve saw what losing your soulmate could do to a person, he didn't want one. This is the story how Steve realized he didn't want a soulmate, he wanted Danny.
Hey guys, hope you enjoy this. I wrote it in like three hours and Haven't looked at it again, so any mistakes are totally mine and if they're too glaring, don't hesitate to tell me.

This work is also a companion piece to my other story Uhane Hoa. You don't have to have read it to understand this one. They each offer a look into Steve's (this story) and Danny's (Uhane Hoa) head.

Have fun.

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When you turn eighteen you receive a mark somewhere on your body. It can be anything from a word to an animal to some seemingly random object. It should help you find the person you're the most compatible with, however you want to interpret that. Most pairs are in a relationship with their soul mate, if they manage to spot them, because you meet them at least once in your life.

As a kid Steve had loved the stories his parents would tell him, and then later him and his sister, about how how they had discovered their marks and then met each other. Steve could never hear it enough.

John would always get that soft smile and Doris that twinkle in her eye and Steve knew they were genuinely happy. He asked to hear the story every chance he got, but he asked to see the marks even more often, though that was a request he wasn't granted often.

"It's a very private thing. You can't flaunt it around for the whole world to see", his dad would always say and Steve had taken it to heart, sworn to his parents and Mary that he would never show to it anyone but his soul mate. Ironically as soon as he turned eighteen he joined the Navy and privacy and self consciousness over your own naked body turned to distant memories.

But before that, his mother died when he was fifteen. Not only did he lose his mother, but he realized that being soul mates didn't mean you were invincible. His father lost all sanity, insisting it hadn't been an accident. It had been murder.

The last time Steve had seen his dad's mark it was on the day he and his sister were sent away. The once glowing, vibrant mark had lost all colour and had been nothing more than a grey figure, looking for all its purposes like a scar and not like it wold lead to the person you were meant to be with.

Steve had lost all enthusiasm for finding his own soul mate. If this is what happened when you lose them, he was better off alone, not wanting to cause himself or someone else to experience the devastation he saw in his father.

The day he turned eighteen, he avoided all mirrors and looking at himself closely in the shower all day. He earned curious looks from those who knew that it was his birthday, but they also knew him well enough that he wouldn't be talking about it, even less show them.

When he did see his mark it was in the changing room a couple a days later before rigorous physical training. A friend pointed at his stomach.

"Any idea what it means?"

Steve reflexively looked down to see a dark blue twenty-two next to his bellybutton. So many possibilities ran through his mind, but he forced it to stop and just shrugged, before he pulled on his tee.

No one mentioned it again.

After the academy he was able to join the Navy SEALs. They were brothers in all but blood and they had saved each others lives countless of times. Living in close quarters and in enemy territory they were little space and less time alone. They had all seen each others marks on more than one occasion, but only once had talked about it. None of them had met their soul mate yet, so they weren't going to die anytime soon.

Steve thought that you could meet them and not even know, but hope was a powerful thing, when you were surrounded by enemies and it was raining bullets.

Throughout his career Steve didn't think about his mark all that often. Once or twice when he was in captivity and he told himself he had to hold on, he had to survive or someone out there would lose their mind without even knowing why and it did the trick. He either held on long enough for his team to get him out or he managed to escape by himself, leaving a path of destruction behind.

Sometimes after a mission he wondered what happened to the soul mates of all the people they had killed, be it in self defense or in a mission, but always quickly forces himself to think of something else, because that way laid madness and he couldn't afford to second guess himself.

He transferred to Navy intelligence and then came the Hesse brothers. When he had accepted the mission, he hadn't known what consequences it would bring. Five years he chased them over the continents until finally he had Anton in custody. He only had a few moments to feel accomplished, before Victor had killed his father. The despair and rage he had felt was so powerful he was sure everyone on the world must have felt it.

Going to the funeral brought him back to his childhood home, brought him an offer from the governor he hadn't want anything to do with and to a toolbox he had never seen in his life. Also, it brought the whirlwind nature of Detective Danny Williams.

Though pretty much the opposite regarding personalities Steve found that his feelings towards the detective quickly changed from tolerance to a certain fondness.

Williams was just another detective to him. A detective who had worked the murder of his father and although he hadn't gotten far, it was understandable. It had been Victor Hesse, the man Steve had chased for five years. So Williams had only been a means at the beginning, though he couldn't deny that he wasn't awful to look at either. Quickly Steve learned that Williams had a temper, talked with his hands and was all in all a very cranky person. But then the phone call came and Steve had watched in fascination how Williams shoulders had relaxed, his voice had become gentle and his eyes had softened. Steve told himself that the jealousy he felt for whoever was on the other side of the line was a hallucination from the lack of sleep he had gotten in the last couple of days.

To learn that he had a daughter and an ex-wife was illogically relieving and Steve hid it under teasing and _Danno_ s.

His respect grew when Danny didn't take what Steve dished out in a rare fit of rage, after Danny had killed their only lead and ultimately had saved his life (which was an information Steve ignored, because it wasn't important at that time).

Steve built himself a new life. He started on cleaning the house, he had a team he trusted and liked, a job that was maybe not as dangerous as his old one, but it saved people and brought the bad guys behind bars, so Steve couldn't complain.

And if his feelings towards a certain blond grew with each day, no one had to know. He was good at hiding things like that.

When Steve saw the Japanese characters writing the word _Adam_ down Kono's neck, he wondered if finding his soul mate was something he wanted in life, now that he wasn't surrounded by danger every second, but then his eyes fell on Danny, leaning against the computer table next to Chin, talking about one thing or the other while Chin nodded and typed at the same time, seemingly not listening, and Steve knew he didn't need a soul mate. He was happy the way things were and even if his crush on Danny didn't develop into anything, that was fine with him.

Then the case involving the USS Missouri came along and in that moment Steve hadn't known what it would change.

After going through every possibility Steve concluded that there was only one option.

"I'm going to swim." Steve enjoyed how Danny's fell open and immediately there was a rant going. The SEAL enjoyed the sound of Danny's voice, the harsh words that he knew now were only spoken in concern.

He pulled off his shirt and while he had hoped it might earn an appreciative glance or a fond eye roll, he hadn't imagined a full stop in the middle of a sentence. He looked over quickly, noticing the still hands hanging in the air, the open mouth and the shock written all over his face. The blue eyes were glued to Steve's torso and if Steve had been more in touch with the whole soul mate thing, he would have thought about Danny's reaction more, but instead the irrational fear of being visually repulsive made his shoulders tense and he just asked: "Danny? You okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Just marveling how stupid you are to actually attempt this. It's insane. Wait. You are insane. Sometimes I forget and then you pull something like this." Danny waved his hands around, making eye contact and with no hint that he was suddenly developing negative feelings for Steve who relaxed and swallowed a relieved sigh. Instead he rolled his eyes and flashed the blond a grin, before he walked to the edge and jumped into the water.

During the swim he pushed the worry away and hatched a plan to make sure that the hostages were safe and that Special Warfare Operator Graham Wilson was taking into custody and that a little girl didn't loose her father.

Thankfully Steve managed to keep the hostages safe and the team managed to prove Wilson innocent in the murder of his wife. He wouldn't get away completely unpunished, but Steve didn't have much to do with that.

After they had wrapped up everything, they went out for a drink to celebrate. Steve was relaxed, content to be with his team and friends, the weird moment with Danny forgotten, but then Danny asked Kono what her mark meant and Steve had the feeling of deja vu.

She got a soft smile and touched it gently with her fingertips. "It's Japanese. It means _Adam._ I haven't found him yet, but I'm a strong believer you know. Especially after Chin..."

"Hey", Chin interrupted. Steve didn't see any real anger in his expression or body language, more resignation, because he knew what was coming now, whether he wanted or not.

"Oh come one. You found your soul mate. That's great. Even if it didn't end well."

"Oh?", Steve asked and he had to force it to sound curious and light, but his mind went back to the faded grey scar of a mark on his father's body, but if Chin had lost his soul mate that way, he wouldn't be so okay now, letting Kono put it out there so casually.

Chin sighed. "Her name is Malia. She works as a pediatric oncologist."

"And she's a bitch", Kono chimed in and Chin glared at her fiercely. "What? It's true. She didn't stand by him when the HPD accused him of taking the money."

Another sigh from Chin and Steve had the feeling he didn't want to talk about it again, so he decided to come to his rescue. By making himself miserable.

"What about you, Danny?" Steve didn't want to know. He wanted Danny to be happy, sure, but hearing about another person, the perfect person for Danny, was not something he wanted to hear. Okay, maybe his crush had grown without him knowing and now it wasn't a crush anymore.

Danny shrugged, trying to act nonchalant, but Steve frowned slightly, because sometimes Danny was a terrible actor. "Didn't find mine yet. Obviously it wasn't Rachel. Probably couldn't tell if I met them anyhow."

"Where is it?" Kono leaned forward, curious gleaming in her eyes. "Can we see it?"

Chin rolled his eyes at his cousin, but kept silent. Steve wished he would protest, because _he_ really didn't want to see the symbol that would bind Danny to another person and if that wasn't the most selfish thing Steve didn't know what was.

Hesitating Danny looked at each of their faces and Steve tried to look encouraging or at the very least not as angry as he felt.

Danny sat down his beer bottle and then reached up to loosen his tie and pop open a couple of buttons of his shirt. Kono whistled, while Steve felt his heart skip a beat and he forced his face into the blank mask he wore during torture to not show weakness. Danny didn't look away from Steve who felt it like a hot poker was pressed into his skin, but even though he really didn't want to see it his eyes were glued to where Danny was pushing his shirt to the side to reveal the golden trident and anchor.

"Huh. The color surprisingly doesn't clash with your skin tone." Kono's words sounded as if Steve was under water and his lungs burned from holding his breath.

Steve felt his eyes widen in surprise and hope and looked up to meet Danny's eyes, already on him, but Steve couldn't believe it. He looked down again and no, it was still there. The anchor and trident that had accompanied him through half his life, together with the colour their SEAL team had commandeered as their own among all the teams.

Swallowing he looked back up and into Danny's eyes, his hand touching his stomach where he now knew that Danny had stared earlier today. He couldn't find words to ask, but Danny could already read him better than anyone else.

"Twenty-two was the number on my baseball jersey in high school."

"The anchor and the trident are part of the Navy Seal emblem."

Grins spread over their lips and not even Kono's _Holy shit_ made them look away from each other. They found their soul mate.

Without another word they stood up and walked out of the bar together, getting somewhere else to talk about how things would change for them. They could apologize to their team mates the next day.

And if their conversation ended up with them cuddling on Steve's couch, touching the marks on the other one's body, interrupted by the occasional kiss, it was no one's business but their own.


End file.
